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Robert ClampettMerrie Melodies: Falling Hare (1943)

Bugs Bunny goes to a military base where he meets up with a mischievous gremlin who gets the better of him. Animation by Rod Scribner, music by Carl W. Stalling. Produced in 1943.


This movie is part of the collection: Film Chest Vintage Cartoons

Director: Robert Clampett
Producer: Leon Schlesinger
Production Company: Warner Brothers & Vitaphone Corporation
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: bugs bunny; merrie melodies; falling hare

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Reviewer: kartwood - - June 4, 2008
Subject: My Favourite!
This has to be my fave Bugs cartoon of all. Bugs chases the gremlin on the plane to the unmistakeable strains of "Powerhouse" by Raymond Scott.

Reviewer: Solo28 - - March 5, 2008
Subject: Falling Hare (1943)
Bugs Bunny reads a book about gremlins at a military base and laugs about it.But a Gremlin uses a mallet to blow up the bomb Bugs is on.Then Bugs is tricked into hiting the bomb himself.The Gremlin then gets rough and ties Bugs's ears and hits his foot with a mallet as he does 3 times in the film.The Gremlin tricks him into going in a plane,then ... DOOM FOR BUGS!

Reviewer: N&D - - February 29, 2008
Subject: DOOM FOR BUGS
Bugs Bunny goes to a military base where he meets up with a mischievous gremlin who gets the better of him. Animation by Rod Scribner, music by Carl W. Stalling. Produced in 1943.

Reviewer: teenonator - - January 21, 2008
Subject: Total classic
Hard to believe that Bob Clampett supervised great stuff like this, yet also did "Beany & Cecil". BTW, the aircraft is kind of a mix of the DC-3/C-47, & the B-18, which was the "bomber" version of the DC-2. I'd love to see some of the WWII-era Popeye 'toons, which were still floating around in the late 50's.

Reviewer: Robin_1990 - - November 28, 2007
Subject: Great Animation, Great Storyline, Great Jokes...Great Everything!
One of my favourite "Merrie Melodies", This cute and funny short is one of the best in the Internet Archive. The Animation is fantastic, Better than most of today's american cartoons. 5/5.

Reviewer: buffalobyrd - - July 29, 2007
Subject: Falling hare
I love this cartoon. yes it very rare to see someone get the best of bugsy boy.
If you guys like this one,check out the one when bugs has the race with the turtle(cecil)and the mobster rabbits. that my favorite.

Reviewer: The Old Sarge - - June 25, 2007
Subject: Bugs and Gremlin - Great Memories
I first saw this cartoon in 1943 at the Lyric theater in Fort collins, Colorado. It was a Saturday morning matinee where you got a soft drink, popcorn, a western, 2-3 shorts, a serial and a bunch of cartoons for a quarter. Kept you out of of your mother's hair for a few hours.

A few technical details you might be interested in. The aircraft is a Gooney Bird which was the military version of the DC3. It was also known as the R4D (Navy), C-47 (Army), Dakota (British commonwealth) and Skytrain (official but seldom used). There were almost 10,000 of them made during WW2 and it flew in more air forces of the world than any other aircrat since and is still flying in some. I am uncertain at which base the research was done. It was near Hollywood and it happened sometime between the 12th of May, 1942 and June,1943. The white star in blue circle was adopted the 12th of May 1942 and changed in June 1943, but the tail flash (red and white tail stripes) were eliminated on the 26th of May, 1942. There were at least two visits to the military base since the opening scenes show a Gooney Bird tale without the tail stripes, but they are present in other scenes.

Incidently, I remember my friends and I adopting the gremlin as our "unofficial" mascot. We never thought of him representing the enemy. Guess that propagande concept was too subtle for our young 7 year old minds. He was just cute and funny.

Hope that you enjoy the trivia.

Paul Garner
The Old Sarge
USAF 1954-1975

Reviewer: Travis1960 - - May 27, 2007
Subject: Bugs is great!
Not to often you see Bugs getting the short end of the stick. LOL!

Reviewer: looneeone - - May 8, 2007
Subject: mr. bunny
bugs bunny is like rock_n_roll, never going to die

Reviewer: apenny13 - - December 25, 2006
Subject: Falling Hare - Great older animation
Falling Hare is a great older animation. Good quality and funny for kids and adults. It has many 1940's WWII references. Some are fairly obvious to those who didn't live through that period and others not so. It's still very enjoyable even if you aren't familiar with the references.

Reviewer: hillngullyrider - - December 11, 2006
Subject: Gotta love it
This is one of the best WWII cartoons around. I can remember watching it as a kid in the fifties, and now my grandson loves it as well. He insists on seeing it three or four times every time he visits. The gremlin has to be a classic. I only wish there was a stuffed animal of him out there somewhere.

Reviewer: Pavws - - September 17, 2006
Subject: the original Gremlin
This is one of the few Bugs 'toons where he gets to taste his own medicine. The antogonistic gremlin is one of the funniest one shot characters with his little dances around Bugs as he gets bashed. And Mel Blancs once again comes up with the perfect voice especially in with that adorable little yankee doodle nyah! nyah! of his. The scene of the plane flying through the city is lesson to all animators on natural movement. But I thought 'hare breaks' would have been a better way to end the scene.

Reviewer: Bob Capps - - July 14, 2006
Subject: I like you... you're silly!
One of my favorite World War II-era cartoons. This one starts out a little slow for a Bugs Bunny toon, but once Bugs and the gremlin get airborne the laughs come one right after another. I did get a creepy 9/11 flashback when the plane was heading for the skyscrapers.

Reviewer: Shadows_Girl - - May 20, 2006
Subject: Bugs!!!
Bugs Bunny (who was based on Clark Gable more or less) is one of the classic cartoon characters around. And the "gremlins" are, of course, REAL. Male gremlins are known as "widgetts" and female gremlins are known as "fifinellas". Actually all this was made up by a young Roald Dahl during his service in WW2 to explain why planes mysteriously break down. There was even a Disney Comic featuring these delightful characters. cf http://delarue.net/gremlins.htm for more info.

About the young lad wondering what 4-F means. That was a term used by the Selective Service Administration back when there was a military draft---it meant that the person was unfit for military service either because of physical or mental disability or because they were gay.

For Bugs four stars!

Reviewer: Spuzz - - April 22, 2006
Subject: Does not star John Lithgow (or William Shatner for that matter)
Obviously made under tensions of WW II, Falling Hare features Bugs finding out there are ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂGremlins out there ready to cause sabotage on planes!ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Bugs laughs this off until he sees one, and it looks like a gremlin, but really could be your Jap/Italian/German etc. So Bugs fights him for the sake of our country~!
I sort of liked this one, because for a change, Bugs is the foil (eg, heÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs the one getting clobbered around). And the animation on the Gremlin is cute. Like I said, there is obvious symbolism of what the Gremlin is supposed to be, and that makes the conclusion of this one a bit problematic as it leaves everything hanging in the air. (literally)

Reviewer: samrees - - March 13, 2006
Subject: classic bugs
i really liked this! gorgeous voices, casting, characters....top stuff....a few obscure references.....4F??????

Reviewer: musicradio77 - - December 26, 2005
Subject: The Restored Print is Better
As you may know, "Falling Hare" with Bugs Bunny is included as part of the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection - Vol. 3" DVD. It features the restored print of the film that you've already seen.

Reviewer: ComputtahBuddah - - October 18, 2005
Subject: One of the best
To bad they can make cartoons like this anymore. I believe this is an all-time classic. Bugs Bunny, rocks.

Reviewer: Jeep - - October 17, 2005
Subject: Falling Hare
It takes me back to a simpler time.Back to the days of black and white.When cartoons were viewed on Saturday mornings and the rest or your free time was spent outdoors.Too bad cartoons run 24/7 now and kids wont leave the house.This is truely a classic to be seen by all.

Reviewer: cccclaudio - - October 9, 2005
Subject: amazing history
the first time as a gag
the second one as tragedy

Reviewer: Savant Trigger - - September 18, 2005
Subject: Not run-of-the-mill bugs flick
It's been a while since I've seen a Merrie Melodies flick, and I think I've forgotten a lot about what they were like.
For instance, I've forgotten how violent they are! 90% of the jokes are slapstick along the lines of someone getting hit with a hammer. I'm not sure why these catoons focus on such thigns, but now I have a slightly better appreciation of the Itchy and Scratchy parodies on The Simpsons...
Other than that, a very good example of the Merrie Melodies visual and audio style (although not really the plot style).

Reviewer: Gman - - July 13, 2005
Subject: Bugs' at his handsomest!
Clampett had the nicest looking Bugs IMO.I believe this is Robert McKimson's design.
To me it is as definitive as Fred Moore's Mickey Mouse.
Oh yeah....damn funny, too!

Reviewer: Christine Hennig - - May 17, 2005
Subject: WHAT AM I DOING???
Another ubiquitous public-domain Warner's toon you've seen a million times. This is the one where Bugs is tormented by a gremlin at an air base and takes a wild ride in a plane with the little monster. We all remember how it ends: "Sorry, folks, we ran out of gas!", but can you think of a better ending for this kind of toon? Personally, I prefer seeing Bugs doing the tormenting, rather than being the victim, like in this toon. But he does pull the exact same gags on Yosemite Sam in a later cartoon.
Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: ***.

Reviewer: TomKern - - April 20, 2005
Subject: Not the usual Bugs
It isn't often you get to see anyone get the better of Bug Bunny. This is GREAT.

Reviewer: Arensky - - March 15, 2005
Subject: Cover Your Ears!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Falling Hare" is probably the loudest cartoon ever to come out of "Termite Terrace" and perhaps the funniest. Ol' Bugs comes head-to-head with a gremlin bent on mischief to Uncle Sam's Air Force and nearly gets himself blown up in the process. From the hare-alious opening to the ear-splitting finale and suprising twist at the end, this World War II vintage cartoon is highly recommended and well worth the download.